For what it's worth - and that ain't much - we haven't had an issue with not having mudflaps either, so I haven't bothered.

To some extent it's a car-dependent thing anyway - mudflaps would look pants on our car, and since it's not as high off the ground as an SUV-type vehicle I'd be more concerned about hitting the mudflaps on something and damaging the bumper moulding as a consequence than stone chips on the van.

I reckon on balance you're more likely to get stone chips from vehicles other than your own, and even the biggest mudflaps won't protect against them.

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I've got no way of confirming this but I believe that mudflaps on cars with short rear overhangs does work.

They worked well on our Landrover and we had them fitted as part of the deal with the Touran.

Randa